By Matt Phelps

If either the boys or girls Mercer Island High School varsity basketball teams make it to the state tournament in 2007, they will be playing in Seattle instead of the Tacoma Dome.

“This should have happened a long time ago,” said Mercer Island High School boys basketball head coach Ed Pepple, who is the winingest coach in state history. “It is unfortunate that it won’t begin until 2007.”

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announced July 27 that it would move the 3A classification level of boys and girls basketball state tournaments to Key Arena at the Seattle Center and Hec Edmundson Pavilion at the University of Washington.

“I am so grateful for that,” said Mercer Island High School boys assistant basketball coach Paul Lagerstedt. “It is just good for high school basketball.”

Key Arena and Mercer Arena hosted the event in 2000; the tournament was played at the Kingdome the previous two years.

The tournament features the top 16 teams for each of the girls and boys teams from the 3A class in a tournament to crown the state champions. The Mercer Island boys have qualified for the state tournament eight times in the past decade.

The discussion of returning the tournament to Seattle has heated up during the past few years as attendance for the event has steadily declined since moving to the Tacoma Dome.

“The Tacoma Dome has done a nice job, but it only makes sense to have it in Seattle,” said Pepple. “It is unfortunate that the tournament is viewed as a money maker.”

Along with attendance problems, the discussion had also been about making the state tournament smaller to accommodate Key Arena during the Seattle SuperSonics season along with other attractions. The addition of Hec Ed, or the Bank of America Arena, has let the WIAA to keep the tournament at 16 teams for both the boys and girls. The tournament was not always 16 teams.

“It didn’t work when it was a final four,” said Pepple. “I was 100 percent against the change, it was a disaster. It has to be 16 teams.”

During the past decade, 10 teams from King County, including the Islanders in 1999 and 1997, have won the state championship.

“A majority of the teams in the tournament from year to year are from the Puget Sound area,” said Pepple.

The difference for Pepple and most basketball fans between the Key and Hec Ed, compared to the Tacoma Dome, is intimacy.

“Hec Ed is just a great place to play,” said Pepple, whose 2002 team played Rainier Beach High School at Hec Ed for the district title. “Key Arena and Hec Ed were built for basketball. The difference is like between staying at a Motel 6 and the Four Seasons.”

Another concern has been splitting up the boys and girls games to different venues. Some schools have both girls and boys teams that make it to the state tournament. Separate venues makes it more difficult for spectators to see both teams. Another concern used to be the prominence of the boys tournament versus the girls.

“The girls program can stand on its own,” said Pepple. “They have fans of their own and they don’t need to piggyback on the boys any more.”